Complaint of Rove group actions goes nowhere

The Federal Election Commission has deadlocked in the case alleging coordination between Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS group and Roy Blunt’s 2010 Senate campaign.

The case revolves around an ad Crossroads GPS ran criticizing Blunt’s opponent for supporting health care reform. The Crossroads ads came two months after the Blunt campaign posted a web video featuring Rove, who also headlined two fundraisers for the senator, touting Blunt’s opposition to health care reform.

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Federal law bars outside spending groups that raise unlimited sums of money from coordinating with the candidates they’re working to elect.

FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub and two commissioners – Cynthia Bauerly and Steven Walther – said the agency had enough information to open a targeted investigation but needed “more factual development… to assess whether coordination in fact took place.”

But the commissioners said in the statement that it was unclear which side of the firewall Rove was on given the murkiness of his “informal position” with Crossroads and how much access he had to Blunt’s campaign.

The Missouri Democratic Party filed a complaint against Crossroads with the FEC in August 2010.